Unfortunately, his biggest bet - the 1996 purchase of Skyhigh on the Peak, then the world's most expensive house - came just before the bubble burst, and Pearl Orient later defaulted.

But like a bad case of indigestion, you just can't keep a good chef down.

Mr Wong is now the second-largest shareholder in leather maker Dah Hwa, in which he owns a 10.7 per cent stake.

The company's shares were suspended on Thursday pending the release of a price-sensitive announcement.

Lo and behold, Dah Hwa is to be christened Pearl Oriental Enterprises and is turning its gaze to gambling and entertainment investments in - you guessed it - Macau.

Shares of loss-making Dah Hwa are up almost 350 per cent over the past six weeks.

appreciating the arts

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who donates to the arts most of all? That is the question local art organisations want an answer to as bidding for the West Kowloon cultural district tender heats up.

Lai See has reviewed sponsorship for next year's Hong Kong Arts Festival, and notes that each of the three surviving tender bidders are listed.

Sun Hung Kai Properties is lining up behind the Polish National Opera performance of Othello.

Meanwhile, Henderson Land is sponsoring a Cantonese opera performance by Tong Dik-sang. And partners Wharf, Sino Land and Chinese Estates are batting for Beethoven.

Long-time supporter of the arts Swire, which was sadly bumped from the cultural district tender, is supporting a piano concerto by Rachel Cheung.

So marks all round then, but we are deducting points from SHKP for failing to get tender partner Cheung Kong (Holdings) involved.

The same goes for Henderson, Wharf, Sino Land and Chinese Estates, all of whom are first-time festival donors.

What took them so long?

what's in a word?

Change of name, change of fortune?

TCL International has proposed changing its name to TCL Multimedia Technologies Limited.

TCL said the new name would reflect its ambition to expand its business overseas.

By stripping out the word 'International'?

oil logos - separated at birth?

Do you, like Lai See, already have problems distinguishing Hong Kong-listed PetroChina from its parent China National Petroleum Corp? It's not as hard as keeping CNOOC Ltd and parent China National Offshore Oil Corp apart, mind you, and it is about to get even harder.

Starting this week, PetroChina and CNPC have adopted a new red-and-yellow flower petal logo.

'The new logo [incorporates] colours of the national flag of the People's Republic of China and [embodies] the characteristics of the oil and gas industry,' the companies explained.

'The overall logo is round in shape, meaning PetroChina's global development strategy.'

The new flower symbol bears more than a passing resemblance to Royal Dutch/Shell's famous sea mollusc.

However, given the Anglo-Dutch company's reserve estimate scandal earlier this year, we're not sure it's a similarity PetroChina and parent should flirt with.

power management

'Small is beautiful' appears to be the moral of Asia Money's best-managed companies poll.

Power tools maker Techtronic Industries and Karrie International, which produces computer cases, both ranked higher than HSBC Holdings.

Techtronic's shares were up 57 per cent last year, Karrie's 25 per cent and HSBC's stock 8.5 per cent.

Congratulations to SHKP, which topped the rankings for both best management and best corporate governance.

New World Development and Zhejiang Expressway came in last for quality of management and investor relations.